The Greatest Adventure Story of All Time

PROS: There are so many positive things that I have to say about this show that I don't know if I can think of all of them.

WORLD-BUILDING:
This show has some of the best and extensive world-building systems I've seen in an anime. Its crazy how from such an early stage, the crew goes from a floating restaurant on the sea to a dinosaur island, to a fricken island in the sky, and eventually end up on a massive water elephant (you get the point). The thing is, these places aren't just randomly thrown in to make this world seem abstract and crazy, but every location the crew goes to, has some sort of significance to the plot. For example, people seem to think that Sky Island is a useless arc, but they seem to overlook the fact that the King of Pirates went there on his own and even included a clue on how to find the one piece. The cool thing is, we don't figure this out until way down the line when on a completely different island. This just goes to show that everywhere the straw hats go has some important significance to the story. It's amazing how many different places, people, and things, Luffy comes across on his journey for the One Piece and we have the great world-building of this show to thank for that.

MAIN CAST:
The Strawhats are easily my favorite group of characters ever. They each offer a unique personality and they click very well together. Luffy is my favorite shonen MC, and honestly my favorite MC ever. I love how he is the perfect embodiment of freedom. As we've seen each crewmember have originated from a backstory where they were trapped by something and Luffy came along to take them to sea. A common theme in the show is freedom. The idea that pirates are the freest out on the sea is what Luffy strives for. In essence, the strawhats are a crew that strives to bring freedom to all. On another note, I like the relationships between each of the crewmembers. The scenes where we see the straw hats together and interacting with each other are the best moments in the show. Each of the members of the crew has a long term goal in mind that the audience gets to follow on the way to Luffy becoming the King of Pirates. Being able to root for such great characters is what makes this show so much more enjoyable.Can't wait to see how each of the Strawhats story ends because Im sure it will be glorious.

PLOT:
The One Piece story is amazing. Along with the endless worldbuilding of the show, everything is intertwined. Everything has meaning and purpose. All the characters are well written and contribute something to the plot. Without a doubt, One Piece will have one of the most amazing finales when Luffy finally reaches the last island. I find it amazing that Oda has been able to produce something of such great quality for nearly 1,000 episodes. The plot is interesting, engaging, yet mysterious and keeps the audience thinking.

CHARACTER DESIGN:
At first, I always thought the characters in One Piece looked comically goofy, but I've grown to love the look of the characters. The outfits of the strawhats change after every arc to keep things fresh. That's something that not a lot of other anime does. Usually, characters will wear 1 or 2 different outfits during the entire show and it can tend to get stale seeing the same outfits. I love seeing what new fits the characters will wear when new arcs roll around.
img( https://i.imgur.com/H7Ljkrl.jpg)

POWER SYSTEM:
Although I like other power systems more, that does not mean that One Piece does not have a fantastic one. We were introduced to devil fruits which is one aspect of the OP power system. I like how they are split up into 3 different categories and there are vast amounts of devils fruits with all different unique abilities. The cool thing about the devil fruits is that they tend to fit the personality and ideals of the character to which they are assigned. Luffy's power, the Gumu Gumu no Mi, gives him rubber man abilities. I think this is very fitting for Luffy because whatever comes at rubber bounces back, and Luffy himself is known to not let things change/intimidate him and he always bounces back just like his devil fruit. Another aspect of the power system is haki. I think haki is a very simple yet nice touch.

CONS: (NOT REALLY CONS JUST THINGS I THINK CAN IMPROVE)

PACING:
I'm aware that episodes are stretched out to avoid filler, but this got annoying when binge-watching the show. Some of the scenes in the show tended to feel like they were repeating themselves and felt unnecessarily long. I think Dressrosa, although it had some of the best peaks, is the worst-paced arc in the show. There would be moments when fights would be dragged on and on and it felt like it was never going to end. Whole Cake Island also felt like it started to get repetitive hearing Big Mom Scream "WEDDING CAKE" for 30 episodes started to annoy the hell outta me. There are other instances where the pacing of the show frustrated me but I don't want to rant. I'm pretty sure the manga fixes the pacing but still, the pacing is the biggest problem with One Piece.

VILLAINS:
Some may think that one Piece has the best villains in the big three but I would have to disagree. I think the villains are too similar and it's hard to sympathize with any of them because they are just pure evil. In almost every arc, Luffy goes to an Island somewhere on the Grandline, that is run by some Tyrannical Ruler who has a superiority complex and views all the civilians living on the island as scum.(Or someone who is trying to take control of an island and become a ruler) In other words, most of the villains are just power whores who love to dominate the "weak". This in itself isn't a bad theme, but I feel like it gets used too much throughout the major arcs in the show. I don't love how the actions of the Villains are so predictable because their personalities and ideals are so predictable. We also know Luffy always has to fight them and he's always gonna beat them so why not make the villains at least a little different in their ideologies. That being said I think my favorite Villain is Do-Flamingo because he has the most fleshed-out and interesting backstory as well as a fitting devil fruit ability. I would have like to sympathize with him more but I just couldn't because he is pure evil similar to most villains in the show. I know this may have made it sounded like I completley dislike the villains in One Piece but thats not true, I still find the show enjoyable regardless of how repetetive the villains are and still find the villains to be badass.

THOUGHTS:
One Piece is without a doubt one of the best shows I've ever watched. Don't let the large episode count intimidate you because this show is so enjoyable that the episodes feel like they fly by. I caught up to the Wano arc, and even though I had just binged 970+ episodes, I wanted more. You will get attached to the characters and find that the One Piece world is the best one there is. I don't believe anything is a true masterpiece but I would say One piece is when it comes to pure enjoyment. I cannot wait to see the conclusion to this "goat" of a show. If you on the fence about watching, just do it.

"Kaizoku Ou ni, ore wa naru!"